A total of 11,690 law enforcement agencies in 48 states and the District of Columbia reported 8,063 bias-motivated criminal incidents (8,055 single-bias and 8 multiple-bias incidents) to the FBI in 2000. The incidents consisted of 9,430 separate offenses, 9,924 victims, and 7,530 known distinguishable offenders. According to the data collected, 53.8 percent of the 8,055 single-bias incidents were motivated by racial bias, 18.3 percent by religious bias, 16.1 percent by sexual-orientation bias, 11.3 percent by ethnicity/national origin bias, and 0.5 percent by disability and multiple biases.

For Hate Crime Data Collection Program purposes, the term single-bias incident refers to any hate crime incident in which all offenses involved in the incident were perpetrated as a result of the same bias motivation. A multiple-bias incident is any hate crime incident in which two or more of the offenses were committed as a result of two or more bias motivations. In 2000, 65.0 percent of the 9,430 hate crime offenses reported were attributed to crimes against persons. Crimes against property made up 34.4 percent of the total, and crimes against society composed 0.6 percent.

As in previous years, intimidation was the most frequently reported hate crime, accounting for 34.9 percent of the total hate crime offenses reported. Destruction/damage/vandalism of property made up 29.3 percent of the total; simple assault, 17.1 percent; and aggravated assault, 12.6 percent. The remaining offenses accounted for 6.1 percent.

Within the offense type crimes against persons, intimidation was the most frequently reported offense; 73.5 percent of intimidation offenses with a known offender were committed by white offenders, and 11.2 percent were committed by black offenders. Additionally for intimidation offenses, race was unknown for 11.4 percent of the known offenders. Further, within the offense type crimes against property, destruction damage/vandalism was the most frequently reported offense; 57.2 percent of destruction/damage/vandalism of property with a known offender were committed by white offenders and 8.9 percent by black offenders. Race was unknown for 30.0 percent of the known offenders involved in destruction/damage/vandalism.

In 2000, 19 hate-motivated murders were reported to the national UCR Program by participating law enforcement agencies. Of this total, 10 of the murders were motivated by racial bias, 6 by ethnicity/national origin bias, 2 by sexual-orientation bias, and 1 by religious bias.

According to the data received for racially-motivated single-bias incidents, there were 3,409 antiblack offenses committed; 2,346 of these were committed by known offenders. Of the 2,346 anti-black offenses where the offender was known, 1,981offenses involved white offenders. Of the 1,050 anti-white offenses, 888 offenses were committed by known offenders. Of these 888 offenses, 527 offenses involved black offenders.

Victims

The term victim throughout this publication refers to a person, business, institution, or society as a whole, unless otherwise specified. Data reported to the national UCR Program in 2000 showed that victims of racial bias accounted for 54.5 percent of all single-bias hate crime victims in 2000. Victims of religious bias comprised 17.2 percent of the single-bias victim total; victims of sexual orientation bias, 15.7 percent; victims of ethnicity national origin bias, 12.3 percent; and victims of disability bias, less than one-half of 1 percent. By specific bias motivation, anti-black accounted for 65.5 percent of the victims of racial bias, anti-Jewish bias represented 74.7 percent of victims of religious bias, anti-male homosexual bias composed 68.0 percent of those who were victims of sexual-orientation bias, anti-Hispanic bias made up 62.7 percent of the victim total for ethnicity/national-origin bias, and antiphysical disability accounted for 55.6 percent of victims of disability-bias crimes.

Of the total 9,924 victims, 61.8 percent fell victim to crimes against persons; 37.6 percent, crimes against property; and 0.6 percent, crimes against society.

A breakdown of the 9,430 offenses by victim type showed that 82.1 percent were committed against individuals, 3.3 percent were against society/public, 3.1 percent against business/financial institutions, 3.0 percent against religious organizations, and 2.4 percent against government. The remaining 6.1 percent were committed against other/known/multiple.

Offenders

For the purposes of the Hate Crime Data Collection Program, the term known offender does not imply that the identity of the suspect is known, but only that an attribute of the suspect is identified which distinguishes him/her from an unknown offender. The attribute referred to in this publication is the offender's suspected race.

Law enforcement agencies in 2000 reported a total of 7,530 known offenders were associated with the 8,063 incidents. By known offender's race, 64.4 percent were white, 18.7 percent were black, 1.4 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander, and 0.6 percent were American Indian/Alaskan Native. Further, 5.1 percent were multiracial, and the race of 9.7 percent was unknown.

The total number of offenders is 7,530. Since some individuals committed more than one offense, 7,872 is actually the number of offenses committed by known offenders. The number of offenses that is committed by individuals who committed more than one offense is 342. The number of offenders who committed more than one offense is 326. The percentage of offenses committed by an individual more than once and the percent of offenders that committed more than one offense is the same, 4.3.

Out of the total 9,430 offenses, 83.5 percent were committed by known offenders; the remaining 16.5 percent of offenders are unknown. Known offenders who were involved in more than one offense committed 4.3 percent of the total offenses. Within the offense type of crime against person, intimidation accounted for 39.3 percent of the offenses in this category that were committed by known offenders. Further, destruction/damage/vandalism accounted for 65.9 percent of the crimes against property committed by known offenders.

Locations

Data contributed in 2000 show that the highest percent of reported hate crime incidents, 32.1 percent, occurred in/on residential properties. Incidents committed on highways/roads/alleys/streets accounted for 17.9 percent of the total, 11.4 percent took place in schools and colleges, and 10.4 percent occurred at other/unknown locations. The remaining 28.2 percent of incidents were widely distributed among various locations.